THE REEMERGENCE OF ESAU

 

THE REEMERGENCE OF ESAU

OVERCOMING FATE AND TAKING HOLD OF DESTINY

THE LEGACY OF ESAU

 

This essay is a character study of Esau, the son of Rebeca and Isaac, the brother of Jacob. As presented in the Chumash and supported by historical fact, the essay is the historical actuality of Esau. It is not based on Midrash or historical myth.

Esau is trapped by fate, at least initially when his Mother is told at Genesis 25:23 by God:

And the LORD said to her: Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples shall be separated from your innards; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

Not aware of the prophecy, Esau is the first to emerge despite his twin brother Jacob’s efforts to hold him back by grasping Esau’s heel.

25:25-26 -

And the first emerged ruddy and hairy like a cloak; and everyone called him Esau. And after that his brother emerged, and his hand had hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob…

The boys grow up. They have distinct personalities.

Their parents have favorites  

At 25:27-28 -  

And the boys grew; and Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a simple man, dwelling in tents.

Isaac loved Esau, because he provided him with game; and Rebekah loved Jacob.

I think there may be another reason, unspoken, as to why Esau is favored by Isaac. Esau is a hunter, a man who kills and eats animals.

Go back to the time when Isaac was troubled by the Philistines.  All through those encounters Isaac would have had Esau lending support and covering his back.

The Chumash is silent as to why Rebeca loved Jacob. It probably has to do with Jacob being a simple man, maybe a “Mother’s Boy”, spending time with her in their tent. Rebeca’s love for Jacob might also be related to the prophecy which because of the order of birth has Esau being second to Jacob.

In the Chumash we now come to a turning point. This has to do with the concept of a birthright and a father’s blessings. First some background:

A birthright is no small thing. By law and tradition Esau by being the first-born was to assume leadership of the family upon the death of Isaac. It is his birthright.  Additionally, he will inherit a double share of Isaac’s estate. Leadership of the family means more than having judicial authority over members of the family.  It also entails having responsibilities, one of which being religious responsibility such as the person designated for the offering of sacrifices.

26:34

When Esau was 40 years old, he married Judith the daughter of Be’eri the Hittite, and Basemat the daughter of Eilon the Hittite.

Hittites are Canaanites.

This did not go over big with Esau’s parents. At 26:35 –

And they were a bitterness of spirit unto Isaac and to Rebekah.

Esau’s mother and father seem not to have counseled him about who to marry. Had they counseled him not to take a Canaanite for a wife and instead to marry one of Lavan’s daughters things may have turned out differently

 

Based on these verses it seems that Esau has taken independent actions:

 1 - If the Chumash is in chronological order, then this action occurs prior to Esau selling his birthright to Jacob.

2 - In terms of marriage it would appear that Esau is acting on his own volition.

3 – Could it be that Esau who at this point is still the first born, and is expecting to lead the family upon Isaac’s demise, is preemptively making family judicial decisions?

What comes next is that Esau is hit by a double whammy:

Firstly, he sells his birthright to Jacob. Then at Rebeca’s urging and complicity, Jacob dupes Isaac to give Jacob a Blessing that had been initially intended for Esau.

When Esau learns that he has been tricked by his mother and by his brother he becomes extremely upset He pleads to Isaac for a blessing, and Isaac blesses him (27:39-40):

 His father Isaac then replied and said to him, “Your dwelling will be blessed with the fat of the land and with the dew of the heavens above.

And by your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother. And it will come to pass when he is down you will unburden his yoke from off your neck.”

Rachel must have conferred with Jacob as it seems that that Jacob is now aware of the prophecy originally given to Rachel.

At 27:41, Esau we learn:

Esau harbored hatred toward his brother Jacob because of the inferior blessing with which his father had blessed him. Esau said to himself): “The days of mourning for my father will soon be here; I will wait until after his death and then kill my brother Jacob.”

Esau keeps his resentment to himself.

However, Rebeca picks up on the potential danger to Jacob. At 27:44, She sends Jacob to her family in Charan which is hundreds of miles to the north. Rebeca believes that in a few days Esau will cool down and it will be safe for Jacob to return. However it will take 20 years before Jacob returns.

.Before Jacob leaves, at 28:3-4, Isaac gives him an additional blessing. This is the clincher. Isaac has made a decision. He passes on the torch of Jewish nationhood from himself to Jacob. He empowers Jacob with the blessing that Hashem bestowed upon Abraham.

And may God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and numerous, so that your descendants become a community of peoples.

May God bestow upon you the same blessing that He gave to my father Abraham—for yourself and for your descendants with you—because you will take possession of the land in which you have been sojourning, which God gave to Abraham.”

Put yourself in Esau’s shoes.

His Mother has not only betrayed him but when she sends Jacob off to her brother (27:45) she regards Esau as if he has died. She has lost him.

That is an awful lot for any child to bear.

And adding to Esau’s tzoris, his twin brother was a willing accomplice to Rebeca’s skullduggery. To top it all off, Esau’s Father who he loves has come to the realization that it will be Jacob who will carry out the spiritual blessing originally bestowed upon Abraham, Esau’s Grandfather.

Isaac tells Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman, but to marry someone from Rebeca’s family in Charan. Esau probably figures out  that it is preferable to marry within the family. At 28:6-9 Esau tries to right the wrong and marries one of Ishmael’s daughters. This had to be a marriage made in heaven, Esau married his cousin, Machalat, Ishmael’s only daughter.

Esau was the kind of son-in-law that Ishmael probably dreamed of.

Consider what we know about Ishmael. At 16:8 we are told:

 And he shall be a wild ass of a man: his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the face of all his brethren.'

Let’s not forget the part of the blessing that Esau finally received from Isaac at 27:40 - And by your sword will you live…

Ishmael not only got a son-in-law, but he also got a warrior. Put this warrior together with Ishmael’s personality and Ishmael’s 12 sons, and you have a formidable army of marauders. 

After 20 years’ time, Jacob and Esau will reconcile. It started like this:

At his parents’ urging Jacob travels to Charan. He arrives at Charan destitute. He will marry two of Rebeca’s nieces plus two handmaidens and spend 20 years working as a shepherd for Lavan, her brother. Jacob is a herdsman. He amasses a fortune in sheep, goats, cows and camels. He is into husbandry, animal and otherwise. From his four wives Jacob fathers 13 children.

So, during this 20-year period what does Esau do? The long and the short of it is that Esau established a kingdom called Edom. At 36:31 in spelling out the genealogy of the kings of Edom, the Torah says: -  And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel. This is quite an achievement. Five hundred years later, it took Moses 40 years to do the same.

As laid out in 36:1-43 it appears that that Esau distanced himself from his folks and the land of Canaan. Esau leaves his birth family.

A reason given in the Torah at 36:7 was that the land was not adequate enough to support Jacob and Esau together.

For their substance was too great for them to dwell together; and the land of their sojournings could not bear them because of their possessions.

Esau headed southward to a mountainous region called Seir. The Seir nation was dominated or perhaps integrated with a Canaanite people called the Horites (חורי in Biblical Hebrew, “excrement “in modern Hebrew). The Seir nation is led by their king named Seir. His son, Lotan was a prince and clan leader. Lotan’s sister is Timna. Her clan bears particular mention. Timna is a princess and is also a clan leader. Timna and her clan are cited in the Chumash at 36:12, 22, 40. She married Esau’s son Eliphaz probably to cement the relationship between Seir and Esau. They had a son named Amalek, whose family hundreds of years later became the archenemy of the Jews.

Timna gave her name to a locality called the Timna Valley.

It is located 19 miles north of Eilat. The area is rich in copper ore associated with a red sandstone (think of ruddy Esau) and was mined during the time of Esau. It probably was a major contributor to the economy of Esau's kingdom.

I am guessing that Esau with the help of Ishmael’s 12 sons, destroyed the Horites. Esau then united with Seir and established his own kingdom called Edom (אֱדוֹם). This name may be a reflection of Esau’s reddish, warlike demeanor or it may stand for the prominent red sandstone found in the area. Edom had a port city located where the Gulf of Aqaba meets the Red Sea that is Eilat today. 

The Chumash at 36:1-43 gives a detailed account of Esau’s wives, children and grandchildren; the family histories of the people of Seir, among whom Esau settled.  The Chumash lists eight kings who ruled Edom, the land of Esau’s and the descendants of Seir.

Esau had three wives and five sons.

36:8 - So Esau dwelt on Mount Seir Esau, that is Edom.

 

Summing up:

Up until the time of the reconciliation between Jacob and Esau no one brother dominated the other brother. Preparing to reconcile with Esau Jacob refers to himself as Esau’s servant and also in the reconciliation that Esau is his master (Genesis 32:19, 21, 33:8). Whether this is flattery or a capitulation by Jacob to his brother that has the effect of standing the prophecy and the blessing on its head is hard to say. In any event the brothers reconcile and each goes on his separate way.

Looking to the future:

The people of Edom are called Edomites and are regarded as the descendants of Esau. Over time they had their ups and downs. Sometimes they dominated parts of Juda; sometimes they were conquered by Judah.  It seems that after the fall of the Temple in 586 BCE the Edomites occupied the southern region of Judah near the city of Hevron. Several hundred years later during the time of the Hasmonean Maccabees the area populated by Edomites was called Idumea.

The Judean Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus converted the Edomites of Idumea.  The descendants of Esau became Jewish once more.  In the year 37 BCE Herod an Idumean Edomite Jew became king of what had been called Judea. While not known for his spirituality, under his reign Herod beautified the Temple, built Caesarea and Masada. It is a tremendous twist of fate: After maybe 1800 years, Herod, presumably a descendant of Esau, rules over the descendants of Jacob. The prophecy has come full circle.